424 DOMESTICATION OF ANIMALS. 



Fire tribe : it is certain that the discovery of fire 

 would give the tribes which possessed it an immense 

 advantage over all the others. War was continually 

 being waged among the primeval men ; and tribes 

 were continually driven, by battle or hunger, to seek 

 new lands. As hunters they required vast areas 

 on which to live, and so were speedily dispersed 

 over the whole surface of the globe, and adopted 

 various habits and vocations according to the localities 

 in which they dwelt. But they took with them, from 

 their common home, the elements of those pursuits. 

 The first period of human history may be entitled 

 Forest-life. The forest was the womb of our species, 

 as the ocean was that of all our kind. In the dusky 

 twilight of the primeval woods the Nations were ob- 

 scurely born. While men were yet in the hunting 

 stage, while they were yet mere animals of prey, they 

 made those discoveries by means of which they were 

 afterwards formed into three great families — the pas- 

 toral, the maritime, and the agricultural. 



When a female animal is killed, the young one, 

 fearing to be alone, often follows the hunter home ; 

 it is tamed for sport ; and when it is discovered that 

 animals can be made useful, domestication is metho- 

 dically pursued. While men were yet in the forest 

 they tamed only the dog to assist them in hunting, 

 and perhaps the fowl as an article of food. But when 

 certain tribes, driven by enemies or by starvation 

 from their old haunts, entered the prairie land, clad 

 in skins or bark-cloth, taking with them their fire- 

 sticks, and perhaps some blacksmith's tools, they 

 adopted breeding as their chief pursuit, and sub- 

 dued to their service the buffalo, the sheep, the goat, 

 the camel, the hoi'se, and the ass. At first these 



